Turns Out Shane Waldron Isn’t Running The Scheme We Thought

When the Chicago Bears hired Shane Waldron as the offensive coordinator, everybody automatically assumed they would run the same offense head coach Matt Eberflus wanted under Luke Getsy. It is the wide-zone system made famous by coaches like Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, and Mike McDaniel. Waldron worked under McVay for years in Los Angeles. It was a natural assumption to make. However, upon closer inspection of the actual scheme he ran is closer to something called the Erhardt-Perkins offense.

It was created in the 1970s by Ron Erhardt and Ray Perkins of the New England Patriots. While it has evolved over the years to keep up with current trends, its core philosophy has remained the same.

“They placed emphasis on the run game and the short passing game by showing the defense multiple looks, formations, and combinations of personnel while running simple plays found in all playbooks. Simple to learn, simple to run, easy to call on the fly, hard to defend.”

This is the style Waldron utilized in Seattle during his three years as offensive coordinator.

Bucky Brooks of NFL Network is a former player and scout. He’s covered the league for years and watched lots of Seahawks tape. It didn’t take him long to note Waldron’s style. It mirrored Erhardt Perkins.

Waldron’s work with Smith was quite impressive. The former second-round pick truly broke out in Year 10 while directing Waldron’s run-heavy, play-action system that pushed the ball down the field. The Seahawks were supposed to be rebuilding in 2022, but they made the playoffs, and Smith was named Comeback Player of the Year. Geno completed a league-best 69.8 percent of his passes for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns (against 11 interceptions), compiling a sparkling 100.9 passer rating in the process. Smith’s sudden efficiency and effectiveness suggest Waldron understands how to maximize the talent at his disposal while masking a quarterback’s flaws within the pocket.

Brett Kollmann of The Film Room also confirmed this on 670 The Score. While he doesn’t think Waldron runs a pure Erhardt-Perkins style, the bones of it are hard to miss, especially in how he utilizes his tight ends.

Shane Waldron using that offense shouldn’t be a surprise.

People talk about his ties to McVay. Not enough people know that Waldron got his NFL break with the New England Patriots in the late 2000s. That team ran an Erhardt-Perkins system under Josh McDaniels. Tom Brady spent almost his entire career playing in that system, winning seven Super Bowls. He wasn’t the only one. Some other quarterbacks who carved out amazing careers in it include the following:

• Peyton Manning
• Ben Roethlisberger
• Philip Rivers
• Lamar Jackson
• Phil Simms
• Drew Bledsoe
• Bernie Kosar
• Drew Brees
• Cam Newton
• Eli Manning

Chris Brown of Smart Football helped explain why this system seems to consistently get the most out of quarterbacks over the years. It comes down to simplifying things in the right areas while still keeping defenses guessing.

“The backbone of the Erhardt-Perkins system is that plays — pass plays in particular — are not organized by a route tree or by calling a single receiver’s route, but by what coaches refer to as “concepts.” Each play has a name, and that name conjures up an image for both the quarterback and the other players on offense. And, most importantly, the concept can be called from almost any formation or set. Who does what changes, but the theory and tactics driving the play do not. “In essence, you’re running the same play,” said Perkins. “You’re just giving them some window-dressing to make it look different.”

The biggest advantage of the concept-based system is that it operates from the perspective of the most critical player on offense: the quarterback. In other systems, even if the underlying principles are the exact same, the play and its name might be very different. Rather than juggling all this information in real time, an Erhardt-Perkins quarterback only has to read a given arrangement of receivers.”

This is what Shane Waldron likely has planned for Caleb Williams.

People wondered what his big secret was in Seattle with Geno Smith. Running a variation of the Erhardt-Perkins style makes life easier on quarterbacks. He will give Williams easy throws early in games to get him in a rhythm. The goal will be pounding opponents on the ground and dicing them up with play action. This system has carried a lot of quarterbacks to all-time success. Williams should be able to follow in their footsteps.